- Jun 9, 2015
- 68
- 349
I give this a million shimmies. Thank you SOOOO much for standing up for all of the artists out there.I am a graphic designer and this is an arguement we hear all the time. "By helping me you get exposure and you'll make more money so I should have what I want for cheap." It is extremely frustrating to hear and to constantly have to justify our product. It infuriates me, personally. It infuriates everyone in these fields.
For a quick second though, lets really think about this exposure thing: On one hand, the person saying "you'll get exposure" might not be able to afford the product. In that case, are they a business I can get actual exposure from? Will the samll town lanscaping company who is asking me for a logo really propel me into the big agencies in NYC where I'd like to end up one day? Probably not, so why should I waste my time? On the other hand, the person saying "you'll get exposure" might actually be able to afford the product but they don't value it or me so again, why should I waste my time?
Here's the thing - we can't pay rent, buy food, or afford a car with "exposure". Like you, we also have families to look after, bills to pay, etc. Any self-respecting "creator" (writer, artist, musician, designer, etc) is NOT going to take you seriously when you make the expsoure arguement. Any self-respecting creator isn't going to waste their time do things for "exposure" when they can go do it for money. Why? Because we provide a service, produce a product, and help make the world go round, just like everyone else in the world. And we deserve to be compensated just like the rest of you. Do you ask anyone else to do their job at a discounted rate for "exposure"? When your car breaks down, do you go to your mechanic and say "well, can't you just fix it for free/reduced price and I'll tell my friends you're great?" No. When your tooth hurts, do you ask your dentist "hey can you pull this tooth for free? I'll pass your business card around in exchange." No. Archeticts don't hand out blue prints for free. Diners don't give you meals for free. People don't do your taxes for free. I really am curious as to why you think artists, writers, designers, musicians, etc should operate under that thought process and not everyone else.
When you ask people to do things for free, you show that you don't value their work or time or experience. As a designer, I paid thousands of dollars and spent countless hours building and refining my skills just like every other person in the professional world. I should be compensated for my education and experience just like everyone else. Free work does not open doors for us. It actually closes them because we are wasting our valuable time doing free/cheap work when we could be out there looking for better opprotunities for ourselves. Free work also hurts our entire industry because then people continue to devalue our work and start to expect more for less.
The reason she probably didn't make those alterations is because it's her design and not theirs and she will sell the design as her design. It would be different if she was creating it for someone else but it was her design. The thing people outside the creative realm forget a lot is if you are an artist, you do work for people and then you do work for yourself and even though you can make money off of both, they aren't the same thing. For example, an artist can be hired to do a portrait for someone and then they can go home and do a painting for themselves. The portrait is a service and the customer has full control over the outcome because technically, the customer owns it. The painting they do for themselves can be sold but the artist has full creative control over that piece and doesn't have to make alterations if they don't want to because the artist owns it until they sell it.
If your friend created the ring for herself and then decided to sell it, I don't blame her for not making alterations to the design. Artists are also business people and are aware of how much they are losing when they say no. But they also are aware that there are billions of people in the world and if someone doesn't it, they know there is another one who will. It's like turning down a job offer that is subpar/isn't what you wanted to hold out for the one you know is out there that is way better.
